What Do We Blame It On This Year?
Ever since the knee-wobbling Adam Wainwright curve that froze Carlos Beltran in October 2006 (a-ha! that’s how he broke his knee!), the Mets have had very distinct “reasons” for not making the playoffs.
In 2007, it was the “lack of an ace”, which in turn allowed The Collapse to happen.
In 2008, it was “the bullpen” (and not the way Jerry Manuel “managed” it).
In 2009, it was “the injuries”
In 2010, it is ….. ?
We need to know what “it” is, and it needs to be specific — otherwise, what will Omar Minaya and co. do this offseason? They need something to “address” during the winter, and placate we angry fans. If they don’t fix anything, we won’t be inclined to buy 2011 season tickets, after all.
Post in the comments what you think will be spun as the thing that needs to be fixed this offseason.
About the Author
Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed.
To a certain degree, this is correct. It has been the manager, and you can backdate that to 2008.
But if we all recall, it was Jeff Wilpon that became friends with and liked Jerry Manuel and wanted to hire him to replace Randolph despite Jerry being a coach during the 2007 collapse and the manager of the 2008 collapse.
They are going to bring in a big time coaching staff, be it Valentine or Backman or some other dark horse like Pinella or Torre. I am not saying I think either will happen. Just giving an example of a big time manager.
what do I thin of that? Sure the thinking is still flawed, but if Wally or Valentine were the manager then I will be very happy, regardless of the thinking behind the decision. Actually if it were Valentine I’d image the FO would have made a few concessions to him. Whether they would stick to the agreement is debatable. But I know Bobby would not come without more power than last time.
BTW would anyone disagree with the following idea: should the Mets bring Wally on the coaching staff either as a bench coach or something else instead of the manager? Would he accept such a role? Perhaps his passion and style would work best if he was not held accountable for the entire team, at least until this team is back on its feet a bit.
And that’s what the underlying problem is — I forget which newsprint columnist had this the other day, but you can bet 300 to 1 that they’re not gonna follow an honest, open-ended, exploratory process and get surprised and learn stuff and get better. In fact I’d lay 300 to 1 that their minds are already made up and that any process they do follow is gonna be just for show
Blame it on Rio
Blame it on the Boogie
Am I missing anything?
The tendency to blame Wright, Beltran, Reyes, Bay is misguided.
David is the guy we should be building around.
David Wright and Frankie Rodriguez (we pick up his contract) for Zack Grienke and Joakim Soria.
SP- Santana, Grienke, Pelfrey, Niese, Mejia and Dickey
RP-Igarashi, Acosta, Parnell, Feliciano, Takahashi, Soria
C- Thole, Blanco
IF- Davis, Tejada, Reyes
3B
OF- Bay, Beltran, Pagan (one other gone in a trade)
OF
Bench- Carter
Free agents available:
3B Adrian Beltre, Jorge Cantu, Brandon Inge
OFCarl Crawford, Jayson Werth, Michael Cuddyer, Magglio Ordonez,